I guess most of my friends I had on here left. Or ,maybe they're still here and just waiting for something interesting to come along. Either way ,I thought I would give this another try. I've been super busy as usual with the crocheting. If I am not crocheting something that someone has ordered ,I am usually crocheting something as a gift for a friend. I lose money doing this but I like seeing people happy even when seeing people happy makes me cry. 

Lately I have been making a bunch of Hello Kitty Dolls. They are quite popular among my friends. It's interesting how each person likes her in a different color. The past 2 years I put together around 20 afghans for a group. The afghans were made for Veterans. Sad thing is ,I still haven't been able to send them out. Four of them I will be taking to my mom's so she can send them to a nursing  home in Florida. Its a nursing home that took care of my grandmother during her last year of life on this Earth. The others ,since they have been sitting so long will be getting washed ,dried ,and I will be personally taking them a Veterans Hospital in my own city. 

I'm going to change the subject here to my health because I need to get it out. Last year was the absolute worse. I had the flu ,upper respiratory infections , 3 stomach viruses ,and nonstop bronchitis. As I said it was a really bad year for me. Well ,earlier this year ,I had had enough of all the sickness. See ,I was a smoker. Smoked a pack a day. I tried so many times over the years to quit. it took the nonstop sickness ,the coughing all day ...and all night long....to really tell me it was time to stop. On April 1 , 2013  ,I was finally able to quit. 

The smoking was not my only issue but it was a start. Soon I found myself at the docs again. Not for the coughing but because my feet suddenly started to become numb ,my legs swelled up  ,and I had reached my highest weight yet of 183 pounds. To some that may not be that bad but for someone who is only average height (if 5'4" is average)  ,has a family history of heart disease , diabetes ,and whom has already been diagnosed with high blood pressure it's a huge deal. 

After having some blood work done ,they found that all my levels were normal except for my cholesterol. I also had edema in my legs and neuropathy in my toes. My feet would hurt so terribly some days that I could barely walk. They still dont know why I have the neuropathy in my feet and toes.  They did an AC1 test to be positive that I do or don't have diabetes and they checked my potassium levels. I go back in 2 days to find out the results of that blood work.  These pasts 6 months I have been cutting down on food ( I lost 30 pounds) only to be followed by a 10 pound weight regain from not only feeling like I'm not eating enough but also with the boredom of eating the same things over and over  , and not knowing if anything I have done so far has helped. 

So ,here I am  nervously waiting to hear what the doc has to say this time.

Praying  for some answers.

Hooking at it's best

For the last several months I have been crocheting up a storm. Maybe it's the cold air brewing outside. I seem to crochet a lot more during the cold months of the year. I finally got the squares all sewn together for the granny square swap that my group had at the end of last year. Man a whole year has gone by all ready. YIKES!!!

Finished Fitty's granny square blanket and it turned out beautiful!!!!
Made some teddy bear Christmas ornaments. Along with a penguin ornament and a some mouse in Wreath ornaments. Dishcloths for another swap in my group ,lol. I made 2 pairs of socks for someone that was having trouble with a pattern. So , she asked if I would make them for her. (pssst...I got $20 dollars for making them) ,hehe.
And wouldn't ya know ,I forgot to take pics of them. I just have the one pic of the first sock ,lmaoooooo. A Fun and Games Bag.
It has a Tic-Tac-Toe board on one side and a checker board on the other.
And all the pieces for it ,fit into the bag for traveling ;-)
Some pretty little roses. And as of now ,I am currently working on a Round Ripple blanket for my son. He chose the colors red ,blue ,and black according to Sonic the Hedgehog characters ,oh boy. Oh ,and I am making some fingerless gloves for him as well. I don't have a pic of those yet ,but I will.
And I can't forget all the chemo caps I made during October. I LOST count!!!!
It was somwhere around 20 of them though :-O

Crocheting along

So , project #1 is Christmas ornaments for a Christmas in July swap that we are doing in the Crocheting Moms group. I was gonna make two different ornaments for each swapper but with time flying by , the way it always seems to do , I had to make a final decision on ONE. And the ornament I picked is an adorable little stuffed mouse hanging through a wreath. I don't have a pic yet because I haven't even finished one. All I have done so far are the wreaths!!! The ornaments have to be finished by the 20th , ayayayayaa.

Ok , project #2 is a granny square blanket that Fitty asked me to make. It is gonna go beautifully in her home , waaaaaaay over on the other side of the world in Malaysia :D Whoo hoooo!! I'm going NATIONAL , lol. Oh , here are the 6 squares that will be repeated throughout the afghan.

And ,project #3 is a baby blanket for a friend of mine. She isn't due until August 1st , but as you know Mother Nature has her own way of doing things. My friend already went into labor once this week and she had to go get that dreaded shot that makes your heart race , your head spin , and body tremble. Well , it stopped the labor temporarily , because what happened yesterday , she started have the contractions AGAIN. Soooooo , she may just have a 4th of July baby. And then I could add another July 4th baby to the book ,lol. See , I have another friend whose birthday is today as well , gotta call her sometime today :D
Here is what I have done on that blanket so far:
Now , you may think , 3 projects , that's not bad!!!! LMAOOOO , that's not even all of them. That's just the ones I have to have done by AUGUST. Yep , I am MENTAL.

Project #4 is the Mother's Day square swap afghan. I am in the final stages of putting it together and then I can add the border and do whatever else I want to add to it ....and theeeeen , I can cuddle with it alllllllllllllll I want , hehehe. The blanket is HUGE!!! , but it is also gonna be very warm.
Here is the layout that I came up with for the blanket. (The 10 pink squares on the end rows are the ones I made)

BTW , I have a little over half of the blanket together now. I'll post a pic later .
and #5 is a layette set that I think I have pretty much given up on. I finshed the blanket and already showed that to y'all before and I got part of the jacket done and then I got bored with it , so who knows. I will go ahead and send the blanket to the lady I promised to send it to. Here's a pic of that blanket:

Passing Down the Talent ;)

I was gonna teach my 14 year old son to crochet when he was younger but hubby didn't want me too. Wellllll , now that my son is 14 and can make many of his own decisions , he came to me the other day and told me that he wants to learn :D
So ,I sat down with him today and taught him how to do a slip stitch and a chain. Right now he is working on perfecting that chain. He is having a little difficulty with it but he is so determined to get it right.. He's just having a problem with twisting the loop but I am so proud of him.

Welcome!!

Well , I just joined Ravelry and found out in order to post blogs on there you have to a have a blog spot with a rss feed ,soooo ,here I am ,lol. This makes number 7 ,lmaoooo.

Anyway ,this will be the site I use strictly for my crocheting and may post pics of my kitties here and there :D



Today I have been adding borders to the squares from a Mother's Day swap we had in a group at CafeMom. I have 28 squares left to border and then I have to figure out a pattern to place them in. Should be interesting to see what I can come up with. I have an idea in mind ,but not sure if it will work. We shall see.



I have also been working on a layette set ,but I kind of put it down do a while. It is a gorgeous pattern that I found in a Leisure Arts book called Tender Touch Layettes and the layette is called "Say it with Flowers"



And the other project I am working on is a granny square blanket that my friend , fitty , asked me to make for her. I will add pics later ,but I am so giddy about this blanket because I LOVE the colors in it and it is gonna be sooooo pretty :D Looking forward to finishing it.



Fixing to start another swap too. This one is "Christmas in July". So ,we are all making Christmas ornaments to swap with each other. The funny thing is that this particular swap is getting me in trouble with my kids because now they want to pull out the Christmas tree ,lmaoooo.



That's all I have for now. Will add more as I get further along in the projects.